Plankton is a term used to collectively describe a wide variety of microscopic organisms that drift passively or swim weakly in bodies of water such as lakes, ponds or oceans. Though the individual organisms that make up plankton may be tiny, plankton plays a very important ecological role in both freshwater and marine communities.

Still Image:

Diatom 1

Diatoms are microscopic marine organisms that produce cell walls made of silicon dioxide.

A plankton net was used to drag for samples in San Francisco Bay off Crissy Field. Samples were mounted in seawater between a slide and coverslip using a silicon spacer. The image was taken on a compound inverted microscope using a 40x DIC objective and digital camera.